Introduction
Super Bowl Sunday, Cleveland Browns & Desaun Watson, 24 lawsuits, gave up
- 3 first-round draft picks (22-24)
- 2023 third-rounder
- 2024 fourth-rounder
- 5 year, $230 million guaranteed
Guess who’s not in the Super Bowl tonight?
2022 Season
- Played 5 games.
- 1,102 YDS ∙ 7 TD ∙ 5 INT ∙ QBR 38.1
You get what you asked for.
Tell the Story
The battle is looming. Philistines ammassed army.
The Philistines fought against Israel, and Israel’s men fled from them and were killed on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons and killed his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
1 Samuel 31:1–2
Goes about the way we would expect it to go.
One of the last things Saul sees are his sons killed (4th son)
When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers found him and severely wounded him. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer would not do it because he was terrified. Then Saul took his sword and fell on it. When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him. So on that day, Saul died together with his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men.
1 Samuel 31:3–6
Saul knew what was coming, Samuel told him the night before.
Saul’s last request is pathetic.
His armor-bearer was more righteous than he was. Ironic, because one time long ago, little shepherd boy had been his armor-bearer.
Is his death not one more attempt to disobey God, one final act of rebellion? Saul died in a manner entirely consistent with the way he lived his life.
John Woodhouse
The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons dead on Mount Gilboa. They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to spread the good news in the temples of their idols and among the people. Then they put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
1 Samuel 31:8–10
They cut off Saul’s head (like Goliath), made his armor a trophy in their temples (like the Ark), and hung his headless body on a wall for all to see.
The humiliation could not be more complete.
Jabesh-gilead was the town Saul first defended as king. When they heard what the Philistines had done with the body, they marched all night in a daring rescue, and buried him under a tamarask tree—fitting, because that’s where he’d spent most of his time as king.
And so the book of 1 Samuel ends, almost worse off than when they began.
2 Samuel 1
After the death of Saul, David returned from defeating the Amalekites and stayed at Ziklag two days.On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head came from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.
2 Samuel 1:1
David knew the battle was coming, knew it would be massive.
2 Samuel 1:2
He asks the same question Eli did in C4… both answers are the end of an era in Israel’s history.
1. The Failure of Human Plans & King
1. God is faithful even when I fail…
…so I can repent confidently.
- God is faithful even when I’m not.
2. God is sovereign even when I sin…
…so I can find strength quickly.
- God is faithful even when I’m not.
- God is sovereign even when I sin.